MISCELLANEOUS.

Wellington Independent, Volume II, Issue 71, 17 June 1846, Page 4

MISCELLANEOUS.

Lord Denman, in his charge Ho tii6j Worcestershire graiA jury, made the fol-[ lowing; excellent remarks:— v HAs not the* punishment of men for crime thetis the! most effectual means of preventing it. We ought-to remove its cause, by attending to the wants of those in the humble, ranks of life, and by providing them with a useful and religious education, giving a higher moral tone, and worthier aspirations to their minds and action?, thus elevating them from the degrading position in which unfortunately, too many of them now are. The desire and endeavour to benefit the; people, and ihus endeavour to prevent" crime, which has been too long neglected,, ought to actuate those placed 'in alfiuence and authority, instead of a total careless-; ness about the cause, and an over anxiety to punish the criminal—banish him from his family and friends, and consign him Jo the contaminating influence of a gaol. Our true duty is to prevent not punish."" Grumblers.—There is a sect, unfortunately well known to most in this land under the denomination of Grumblers, whose fundamental maxim is—whatever is, is wrong. Wherever they are fonnd, and they are found almost everywhere, they' operate as asocial poison; and, though they contrive to embitter the .enjoyments of every body about them, they perpetually assume that themselves are the only aggrieved persons, and with such art, as to be believed, till thoroughly known. They have often some excellent qualities, and the appearance of many amiable ones ; but rank selfishness h their chief characteristic, accompanied by inordinate pride and vanity. They have a habit of laying the consequences of their own sins, whether of omission or commission, upon others and, covered with faults, they flatter themselves tnny "walk blameless," Where their selfishness, pride, or vanity are interested, they exhibit signe of boundless zeal, attention, and aff ction, to which those, who are not aware of their motives, are the dupes.; but the very moment-their predominant feelings are offended, they change from April to December. They jjave smiles and tears at command for their holiday humour; but in the a winter of their discontent," there is no safety from the bitterest blasts. Their grievances are seldom real, or if real, are grossly exaggerated, and are generally attributable to themselves; for absorbed in their own feelings, they are wonderful losers of opportunities. ; In conclusion, I think it would be for their advantage, as it;certaiii!y would be for that of the re*t«f <the v*orld, if they were made I subject lesome severe discipline 4 and I would suggest for the first, second, and third offence, bread and water and the tread-mill, for one, two, and three months, respectively ,• for the fourth offence, transpor.ation for seven years to Boothia Felix, or some such climate; and any subsequent delinquency I would make capital, and cause the criminal to be shut up with some offender in equal degree, there to grumble each other to death.- The Original. On Sunday week (July 27,) Mr. Morgan, draper, of Abergavenny, on going to his counting-house, was surprised at smoke arising from a bale of shawls, of first rate quality, which had just arrived, The skylight of the room is composed of panes of glass, the centre of some of which present that protuberance technically denominated " bull's eyes;." these formjpg a focu3, concentrated the rays of the sun, and the consequence was that a large and unseemly hole was burned through the pile of shawls, whereby considerable damage was sustained.—Monmouth Merlin. Liverpool was not so important a town in 1745 as to have a newspaper. Manchester had only one. There were but twenty-eight in all provincial England, two in Scotland, and four in Ireland, (in the last two cases confined to the respective capitals ) London was then a town under half a million of population—about one and a half of the present Manchester. Edinburgh had forty and Glasgow twenty thousand; now the latter is computed to have 311,000. Lancashire has since then added just about one million to her population ! The whole annual revenue oi the country from customs in 1745 (about a million and a half) was not a third of wliat is now drawn on that account in Liverpool port alone.—Chambers' Edinburgh Journal. The building trade is in a state of great activity at jiresen , , and hough mason's

wages are 22s per week, the masters state that they cannot obtain a sulheiency of workmen.—Glasgow Argus. A lady seeing at the window of a linendraper, who liad not long been i» businees, that very c-mmon lure, " The goods of this shop selling under pruno cost, stepped into a friend's, who happened t.» Uve within two or three doors, and inquired whether he thought hie neighbour was really selling under prime cost, and would let her have any good bargains. " As to replied ncr friend, '* 1 am really at a loss to answer, but with respect to selling under prime cost, -that, I can positively assure you, must be impossible—fur, to my certain knowledge, he has never paid a single farthing for anything he has in his shop." Forms of intemperance. — There is the intemperance Ipf mirih, aad then its victim ia a silty buffoon; the inieraperance of seriousness, and then he is a gloomy ascetic,} the intemperance of ambition, and then he is the laurelled hero oi a hundred fights, a mad-cap poet, or a mountebank statesman; the intemperance 'of love, and then he is a good-for-nothing driveller; the intemperance of anger, and then he is a frothing madman ; ihe intemperance of dress and manners and then he is a glittering fop; the intemperance of the purse, and then he is a surdid miser; the intemperance of the palate, and then he is a filthy glu'ton ; the intemperance of the buwi, and tiien he is a reeling drunk* ard. Revenge.—-A spi> it of revenue is the very spirit of the Devil; than which nothing makes a man more like him, and nothing can be more opposite to the tern* per which Christianity was designed to promote. If your revenge be not satisfied, it will give you torment now; if it be, it will give you greater hereafter. None is a greater self-tormenter than a revengeful and malicious man, who turns the poison of his own temper upon himself. Trying Experiments. — A Flemish painter, entertaining some doubts of the affection of bis wife, and being anxious to ascertain if she really loved him, one day stripped his breast naked and painted the appearance of a mortal wound on his skin ; his lips and his cheeks h ? painted of a livid colour i and on his palette near him he placed his knife, paimed on the blade with ttjblood-like colour; he then shrieked out .a.* if he had been that instant kihed, and lay motionless. His wife, hearing the noise/ran to his study, was hurror-struck at ihe appalling spectacle, uttered an involuntary scream, fell down in a swo>n, and in a t'evr minutes became a lifeless corpse. A boy, Juhn Sweeny, who was lately severely injured in the brow, by a kick from a horse, at Cambridge, was beiore the accident one of the greatest stammerers in his speech. He now speaks fluently, and with the greatest ease.—English paper. London i n length is nearly eight miles, its breadth three, and its circumference twenty-six. It contains aboveß,ooo streets, lanes, alleys and courts, and more than 1 b5 J dl « ere, J t squares. It has 246 churches and chapels, 207 meeting-houses for Diesenters, 43 chapels for foreigners, and 6 synagogues lor Jews—making 502 places of worship. The number of inhabitants during the sitting of Parliament is estimated at J,250,000. In this vast city there are upwards of 4,000 seminaries for education, 10 for promoting the arts and sciences, 122 asylums for the indigent, 17 «u!h Sl , K, a ° d ,ame ' 13 di *P<™ari es , 704_ charitable institutions, 68 courts of W o * 7 >°4o professional men connected mtli the various departments of the law. There are 13,300 vessels trading to the nverThames in the course of a fear, and 4U,000 waggons going and returning to the Metropolis in the same period, inciuding their repeajtf voyages. The amount of exports a nd imports to and from the I names is estimated at £66,811922 sterling aimually, and «he property float. A-170,000,000 sterling. These circumstances may be sufficient to convince us of the amazing extent and importance of the capital of the British empire. . Ihe pupils of an academy one day signed a-round robin," expressing their anxiety for the health of their JaWs and begging them to take holiday, which on the part of themselves and guardians they would willingly consent to. Persons who are always cheerful and ™°ii hu !? oured . are ™ry useful i n the world; they maintain peace and bappinewj, and spread a thankful temper amongst ail who live around them. Keop him at least three paces distant *ho hates music and the laugh of a child